Jun 12 at 12:00 PM - Sale 2708 -

Sale 2708 - Lot 141

Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
(MUSIC.) Thomas Moore and L.D. Hoard. "Array Thee Love": the previously unrecorded first music published in Chicago. [4] pages, 12¾ x 9½ inches, on two detached leaves, with plate number 1775; horizontal folds, 3 repaired closed tears of up to 4 inches. Chicago: Brainard & Mould, [1849]; Cleveland, OH, S. Brainard
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"Array Thee Love" is now the earliest known piece of sheet music with a Chicago imprint, printed in 1849--a fresh discovery not previously known to bibliographers. This honor had previously been credited to "Garden City Polka," published four years later in 1853 (see next lot).

This piece is undated, but can be pinned down through its plate number, its publisher, and by a public notice of its release. The partnership of Brainard & Mould opened their Chicago music store in 1847, and the partnership was dissolved by 1851. They contracted out the printing of "Array Thee Love" to Oliver Ditson of Boston, who also printed up some copies with his own imprint using the same "1775" plate number. Examples with the Boston imprint are held by Harvard University and the Quebec Archives, although this Chicago imprint is untraced. Ditson used surrounding plate numbers (such as 1766, 1770, 1778, and 1780) for other works bearing an 1849 date. A supply of "Array Thee Love" was advertised as "just received" from Ditson at a Washington music store on 5 January 1850, in the Daily National Intelligencer.

The music to "Array Thee Love" was composed by a Chicago resident, Louis deVillers Hoard (1824-1893); the 1850 census shows him in Chicago as a clerk with the circuit court. He borrowed the words for this piece from Thomas Moore's 1831 "The Summer Fête. A Poem with Songs."

We find only one other reference to this Chicago imprint in the historical record, a brief mention in the 1909 "The History of Cook County," page 562: "Brainard & Mould, 179 Lake Street, were music publishers in 1849. A song entitled 'Array Thee Love' was issued by this house, the composer being L.D. Hoard of Chicago." However, Dena Epstein's 1969 monograph "Music Publishing in Chicago before 1871" noted Brainard & Mould as Chicago's first music store but asserted "No evidence has been found that Brainard & Mould did any publishing." Epstein describes B.K. Mould's 1853 "Garden City Polka" as "the earliest music publication from Chicago which has been found" (pages 3-5)--a claim which has now been superseded by "Array Thee Love."

To be clear, this piece was not actually printed in Chicago. But it featured the work of a Chicago composer--and was the first known piece of music commissioned by a Chicago firm, appearing under a Chicago imprint.

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